My research interests
are
focused on understanding of the mechanisms of human longevity, and
testing
the specific predictions of different theories of aging (including
evolutionary
theories of aging) using epidemiological, genealogical and demographic
data.

I am also interested
in
developing large-scale and high-quality databases on familial longevity
that can be used by other researchers and by myself for genetic
epidemiological
studies. My analysis of existing datasets (Gavrilova, Gavrilov,
1999)
indicates that a breakthrough in data availability, quality and
abundance
is both feasible and highly demanded now for further progress in
longevity
studies. These genetic epidemiological studies of human longevity
include (but are not limited to) the following research questions:

(1) To resolve an
apparent
controversy between reported low estimates for lifespan heritability
versus
high familial clustering of exceptional longevity. We believe
that
we can resolve this paradox, because we already found very unusual
pattern
of lifespan inheritance consistent with the predictions of the
evolutionary
(mutation accumulation) theory of aging (Gavrilova et al., 1998;
Gavrilova,
Gavrilov, 2001a).

(2) To find out the
mode
of lifespan inheritance and to identify families with unusual types of
familial transmission of human longevity (suggestive for mitochondrial
inheritance, sex-linked inheritance, etc.) for further genetic studies.

(3) To explore the
effects
of inbreeding on exceptional human longevity and to test two
contrasting
predictions of increased level of inbreeding (hypothesis of recessive
genes
and hypothesis of multifactorial inheritance) versus negligible level
of
inbreeding among centenarians as predicted by the mutation accumulation
theory of aging (see Gavrilov, Gavrilova, 2001; Gavrilova, Gavrilov,
2001b).

(4) To explore the
role
of early-life developmental conditions on later-life health outcomes
including
human longevity (in collaboration with Dr. Leonid Gavrilov).